Add/Remove issue

I know this has cropped up in forums before, but as yet I have failed to find a successful solution.

I wish to remove some software - however, it does not appear in Windows 7's Add/Remove feature, neither does it appear on the list of installed software generated by the application Perfect Uninstaller.

Would it cause problems to simply drag the application's folder into the Recycle Bin (as with the Mac method of uninstalling), or would this cause potential system problems?

Yeah, unfortunately not always one there. But the MS method is relatively painless. I have just deleted the program folder and then scrubbed the registry as best I could. I've also re-installed the program on top of the existing one in hopes the Add/Remove entry would show up. Sometimes it did; sometimes not.

Life is like an Algebraic expression with little equality and all unknowns

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Yeah, unfortunately not always one there. But the MS method is relatively painless. I have just deleted the program folder and then scrubbed the registry as best I could. I've also re-installed the program on top of the existing one in hopes the Add/Remove entry would show up. Sometimes it did; sometimes not.

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Yes - cheers zahnoo

I tried the reinstall method - still no go...

I've read that in some instances it may be best to just leave it be...ie it is possible to cause system wide problems with some of the more 'exotic' methods of removal. Would you agree?

I've read that in some instances it may be best to just leave it be...ie it is possible to cause system wide problems with some of the more 'exotic' methods of removal. Would you agree?

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If the worst thing the software is doing is taking up a tiny bit of disk space then yeah, just leave it. But being a space freak, that's hard for me to do; but I have done it. The last time was on an XP Pro machine and it involved a well known free anti malware program. Even doing the normal system uninstall led to problems I just couldn't solve. My "final" solution was to reinstall it, use autoruns to stop things from running at system startup and just left it that way for a couple of years. When I moved up to Windows 7, the problem went away.

Life is like an Algebraic expression with little equality and all unknowns

Stop hovering to collapse...Click to collapse...Hover to expand...Click to expand...

If the worst thing the software is doing is taking up a tiny bit of disk space then yeah, just leave it. But being a space freak, that's hard for me to do; but I have done it. The last time was on an XP Pro machine and it involved a well known free anti malware program. Even doing the normal system uninstall led to problems I just couldn't solve. My "final" solution was to reinstall it, use autoruns to stop things from running at system startup and just left it that way for a couple of years. When I moved up to Windows 7, the problem went away.

Click to expand...

"But being a space freak, that's hard for me to do"

I love that - could be me talking!

It's a comparatively small application and as I don't feel 100% comfortable with some of the removal operations I have read about, I may just leave it - even though it is annoying me at the moment!

If it's just a small app, just delete it from the program files folder, and run Crap Cleaner to clean the registry.
This is by far the easiest solution, childs play, and gets the job done in this case.

Running Ccleaner maybe isn't the most elegant solution, but it is will clean all residues left behind by the application,
and you won't have to break a sweat at all.